Playwright Explains War Drama 'Body Of An American' At Hartford Stage

Dan O'Brien's play "The Body of an American" is based on his relationship with photojournalist Paul Watson.

Dan O'Brien's play "The Body of an American" is based on his relationship with photojournalist Paul Watson.

(Mark Mirko / mmirko@courant.com)

CHRISTOPHER ARNOTTSpecial to The Courant

"Body of An American" at Hartford Stage reads like a poem, but it's the profound story of an actual event

Dan O'Brien writes war-themed poetry, war-themed opera libretti and war-themed plays. Quite a few of them have been about the bond that O'Brien formed with the Canadian photojournalist Paul Watson.

"The Body of An American," which has already had a few productions throughout the country and won some major awards, is being given a new production by Hartford Stage from Jan. 7 through 31. On the page, the drama, about real people experiencing life-threatening situations, has a haunting, dreamlike tone. The show's two actors switch back and forth, playing the same characters, finishing each other's sentences.

"I tend to be solitary," says the Watson character early in the play, to which playwright O'Brien — also a character in the play — responds, "This is you speaking, though it might as well be me."

Courtesy of Hartford Stage

Actors Michael Cumpsty and Michael Crane in a scene from Dan O'Brien's play, "The Body Of An American."

Actors Michael Cumpsty and Michael Crane in a scene from Dan O'Brien's play, "The Body Of An American."

(Courtesy of Hartford Stage)

"The Body of An American" reads like a poem. But the real-life O'Brien, in a phone interview from his home in California, affirms that "it was a play first. It's about consciousness and memory. I wanted that fluid, lightning-quick sense of possibility in the writing. I wanted it to be a strange experience for the audience.

"It's not meant to sound like poetry. It's not iambic. The line breaks are there for me, so I can focus. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the material. It's such a huge story."

The story concerns how an image — Watson's 1993 photograph of supporters of Somali ruler Mohammed Aidid celebrating by dragging the body of a dead U.S. Army Staff Sgt. (whose Black Hawk helicopter had been shot down) through the streets of Mogadishu — can change minds and alter history. The photo, which won Watson a Pulitzer Prize, directly affected the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Somalia.

So "The Body of An American" tells the story of an actual event that had profound political, cultural and humanitarian significance. But, as O'Brien suggests at the outset, the play is about "historical ghosts." It's an emotionally layered drama about passion, diligence, stress and trauma.

The play's director, Jo Bonney, agrees. "It's a love story about two men who become friends."

"'The Body of An American' is written tightly and deeply," she says. But what will it look and sound like?

"There's an impressionistic quality to the piece," Bonney says. "Paul plays Dan, Dan plays Paul … there are moments when you go, 'I have no clue what's going on.' That's where the theater resources come in." Her job is to "assist the actors as they shapeshift."

The stage set will be basic yet technically complex. The scenic designer is Richard Hoover, with whom Bonney has worked "many times. He's created this fragmented feel, with two chairs and a small platform." There are also large projections of photographs, by Watson and others, which set both the place and the mood. "Half the play," O'Brien says, "is set in the Canadian arctic."

"The actors are onstage for the whole 95 minutes," Bonney says. "The stage allows us to isolate them from each other. It becomes a nice metaphor. These are two isolated people. There are all these little scenelets dropped into the scenes."

O'Brien says his play "needs a director with a brainy, conceptual side." As for the two actors, he's thrilled to have gotten the British actor Michael Cumpsty (whose Broadway credits include "Copenhagen," "End of the Rainbow" and "Machinal") to play the character Paul. The role of Dan goes to Michael Crane, whom the playwright has admired since seeing his work when both men were students at Brown University. "I've had Michael Crane in mind for this role for years."

"It's great to work with people who just kind of get you," O'Brien says. "And what else is so great about this production is that [Hartford Stage Artistic Director] Darko Tresnjak is someone I worked together with early in my career. [Associate Artistic Director] Elizabeth Williamson was one of the first people to see this play."

Following the Hartford run, the production moves to the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York, with the same cast and the same general design concept, though the theaters are very differently shaped.

O'Brien has been attending some of the rehearsals and making slight changes to the script. Michael Cumpsty happens to be taller than the real Paul Watson, so a line calling him a "little man" obviously was changed, but O'Brien also points out that "after a few years, you hear something differently, and think, 'That makes no sense.'"

"THE BODY OF AN AMERICAN"is at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford, Jan. 7-31. Tickets are $25-$85, $20 for students. Performances are Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7:30 p.m., plus a Wednesday matinee Jan. 20 at 2 p.m. A series of talks and special events has been organized in conjunction with the production. Information: 860-527-5151, hartfordstage.org.